Remote IDE (VSCode)
Access Oscar's file-system remotely from VSCode.
To use VSCode you must be on a Brown compliant network or connected to the VPN. Please install the Brown VPN client before proceeding.
September 10, 2023: Some users have reported issues while connecting to the Oscar VSCode remote extension. This is due to a recent change introduced by VSCode. To address this issue
Ctrl (cmd on Mac) + Shift + P > Remote-SSH: Settings
Disable the Remote.SSH: Use Exec Server option
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To use VSCode you will need to be connected to the VPN. Please install the Brown VPN client before proceeding.
- 1.

2. Open VSCode settings and uncheck symlink:
Mac
Windows / Linux
Code > Preferences > Settings
File > Preferences > Settings
Search for
symlink
and make sure the symlink searching is unchecked
3. Make sure you have set up passwordless SSH authentication to Oscar. If you haven't, please refer to this documentation page.
If you have Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) installed in your computer, you need to follow the instructions for Windows (PowerShell).
4. Edit the
config
file:Mac / Linux
Windows
The
config
file is located at:~/.ssh/config
The
config
file is located at:C:\Users\<uname>\.ssh\config
If you have Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) installed in your computer, you need to follow the instructions for Windows (PowerShell).
Edit the
config
file on your local machine, add the following lines. Replace <username>
with your Oscar username. # Jump box with public IP address
Host jump-box
HostName poodcit4.services.brown.edu
User <username>
# Target machine with private IP address
Host ccv-vscode-node
HostName vscode1
User <username>
ProxyCommand ssh -q -W %h:%p jump-box
- 5.September 10, 2023: Some users have reported issues while connecting to the Oscar VSCode remote extension. This is due to a recent change introduced by VSCode. To address this issue
Ctrl (cmd on Mac) + Shift + P > Remote-SSH: Settings
Disable the Remote.SSH: Use Exec Server option
- 6.In VSCode, select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host… and after the list populates select
ccv-vscode-node


6. Install and set up of VSCode
Mac / Linux
Windows
After a moment, VS Code will connect to the SSH server and set itself up.
After a moment, VS Code will connect to the SSH server and set itself up. You might see the Firewall prompt, please click allow.
Allow Firewall connections
- 7.Configure VSCode
Important: Please run the following to add a settings.json file to your config. This is because the filewatcher and file searcher (rg) indexes all the files you have access to in your workspace. If you have a large dataset (e.g. machine learning) this can take a lot of resources on the vscode node.
Connect to VSCode first.
You can either create a symlink via the
ln
command below,ln -s /gpfs/runtime/opt/vscode-server/ccv-vscode-config/settings.json /users/$USER/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json
or manually create
/users/$USER/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json
file with following contents{
"files.watcherExclude": {
"**/.git/objects/**": true,
"**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
"**/node_modules/**": true,
"/usr/local/**": true,
"/gpfs/home/**": true,
"/gpfs/data/**": true,
"/gpfs/scratch/**": true
},
"search.followSymlinks": false,
"search.exclude": {
"**/.git/objects/**": true,
"**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
"**/node_modules/**": true,
"/usr/local/**": true,
"/gpfs/home/**": true,
"/gpfs/data/**": true,
"/gpfs/scratch/**": true
}
}
- 1.Click the green icon "Open a Remote Window" in the bottom left corner of VSCode Window. Then click "Connect to Host" in the drop down list.

2. Select the
ccv-vscode-node
option to connect to Oscar. 